Facebook has acquired Push Pop Press, a San Francisco based new kind of digital publishers founded by two former Apple employees. Push Pop Press was founded by Kimon Tsinteris and Mike Matas.
With the grand ambition of changing the way we read books, Push Pop Press produced Al Gore’s Our Choice, the next gen digital book for iOS devices. It won 2011 Apple design award for its multi-touch interface, interactive 3D book cover.
Facebook acquiring a digital publisher does raise a few eyebrows and make you wonder whether Facebook will jump into the digital book fray competing with Amazon,Apple and Google. Facebook cleared the air by issuing a statement that it is not getting into the eBook business, but it will integrate the ideas of Push Pop Press in to Facebook.
It will be interesting to see how Push Pop Press will contribute to Facebook, given that one of the designers from Push Pop Press and a Ex-Apple designer Bret Victor reasoning why he quit Apple in a Fast Company interview said that he has “zero interest in helping people look through photos and listen to music”.
Here is the press release from Facebook on acquiring Push Pop Press.
We’re thrilled to confirm that we’ve acquired Push Pop Press, a startup whose groundbreaking software changes the way people publish and consume digital content. We can’t wait for co-founders Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris to get started, and for some of the technology, ideas and inspiration behind Push Pop Press to become part of how millions of people connect and share with each other on Facebook.
Some background information on Push Pop press:
– Push Pop Press created the software that powered the digital version of the book “Our Choice”
– Facebook isn’t planning to get into the digital book business, but some of the ideas and technology behind Push Pop Press will be integrated with Facebook
– Push Pop Press was co-founded by Mike Matas, a user interface designer, and Kimon Tsinteris, a software engineer and architect
– Mike demoed the application at Ted in March: http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_matas.html
– For more on Mike and his work, see: http://www.mikematas.com/#!about and http://www.mikematas.com/#!2Rs/
– For more on Kimon and his work, see: http://kimtsi.com/
Here is the full press release from Push Pop Press,
Push Pop Press acquired by Facebook
Last year Push Pop Press set off to re-imagine the book. We created a new way of publishing and exploring text, images, audio, video and interactive graphics, then teamed up with Melcher Media and Al Gore to create a new kind of book.
The result is Al Gore’s Our Choice, which was released earlier this year. The response has been incredible. Tech columnist David Pogue of The New York Times summed it up by saying:
“this is one of the most elegant, fluid, impressive apps you’ve ever seen. It’s a showpiece for the new world of touch-screen gadgets.”
Now we’re taking our publishing technology and everything we’ve learned and are setting off to help design the world’s largest book, Facebook.
Although Facebook isn’t planning to start publishing digital books, the ideas and technology behind Push Pop Press will be integrated with Facebook, giving people even richer ways to share their stories. With millions of people publishing to Facebook each day, we think it’s going to be a great home for Push Pop Press.
Al Gore’s Our Choice will remain available for purchase, and we’ve decided that our future profits from the book will be donated to The Climate Reality Project. There are no plans to continue publishing new titles or building out our publishing platform that was in private beta. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported and expressed interest in Push Pop Press.
Both Push Pop Press and Facebook share a passion for improving the way we share and explore ideas and we couldn’t be more excited about what the future holds.
Mike Matas
Kimon Tsinteris
Co-founders, Push Pop Press
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